5 things you need to know in Australian tech today

1. It’s all hands on deck for Australian fintechs as they race against the clock to prepare for a foreign invasion. FinTech Australia president and Reinventure managing partner Simon Cant says the industry can’t rest on its laurels and needs as much support as it can to avoid the same fate as the media industry – overrun by deep-pocketed multinationals. Read more on his warning here.

2. There are even longer-than-usual queues at the airport this morning after a tech failure. The passport checking software is down, reportedly due to a global issue, causing a massive backlog at immigration in Sydney and Melbourne airports. Read more here.

3. Airtasker has put kiosks into an Ikea store to let customers immediately book in someone to assemble their new furniture. The trial in Sydney will see electronic kiosks offered as a possibly cheaper and faster alternative to the existing fixed-price Ikea assembly service. The pilot, ending in July, is available for all residents in the Sydney metropolitan area. Read more here.

4. A New Zealand startup moved to Sydney six months ago and now it’s raised $3.4 million. The AFR reports Fulcrum, which produces a sales and marketing platform already used by “a range” of ASX top 50 companies, has closed the capital raise courtesy of “high net worth Australian families”.

5. Centrelink’s much-criticised “robo-debt” system will be expanded to save a further $980 million for the department of human services. The big data software, which caused much public angst earlier this year after thousands of people complained of copping unjustified debt collection letters, will start sucking in asset and investment information from July 1, according to iTnews. Meanwhile, Labor Senator Murray Watt has called for a halt to the programme until the outstanding problems are resolved, reported ZDNet.

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